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Facebook IPO Valuation Could Top US$100 Billion: CNBC

CNBC reports via unnamed sources that the social networking giant could launch its public stock offering in the first quarter of 2012, and at a valuation in excess of US$100 billion.

CNBC:

The company’s IPO, were it to happen by next spring, would probably be triggered by a section of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act known as “the 500 rule,” these people say.

Essentially, the rule mandates that once a private company has more than 500 investors, it must begin releasing quarterly financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission, just as public companies do.

Note that in January this year, when Goldman Sachs and other investors put US$1.5 billion in Facebook, the company was already valued at US$50 billion.